3 ms·

Food (not the largest exponent, but probably the longest history)

• bryanlarsen 7y ago
  Interesting fact: the price of a bushel basket of wheat has been approximately equal to a single British Pound Sterling since the 1300s. At that time the pound was only slightly denatured, it was worth only slightly less than a pound of silver.
• guidoism 7y ago
  I'm not sure. I did some analysis comparing the cost of basic grocery items in the early 20th century to now and they aren't that different. I used the price of gold at the time vs now and the average daily wage to try to get a better feel for relative prices. Over hundreds or thousands of years, yes, definitely. All that said, it seems like automation could push the cost of food to near zero in the coming decades.
  • bryanlarsen 7y ago
    These guys find that the price of food per hour of unskilled labour wage was about 8 times higher in 1919. https://fee.org/articles/food-prices-in-1919-compared-to-today/ https://fee.org/articles/food-prices-in-1919-compared-to-tod...
  • perl4ever 7y ago
    Looking at this, it seems like in Elizabethan times, a penny was more or less equivalent to a dollar or pound today, if you look at the price of bread, beef, and wine. http://walternelson.com/dr/node/892 http://walternelson.com/dr/node/892 ...however, if you use bread and beef and wine as the standard, then chickens and beer were extremely cheap. But sugar was extremely expensive.
• parenthesis 7y ago
  Yes, it shouldn't be 'breadwinner' any more, but 'rentwinner' or somesuch. People needing to go to food banks is because they have no money left after paying rent, utilities etc., not because food is expensive.